Been scammed for unauthorized ILD Teleservices on you AT&T bill lately?

Question

Been scammed for unauthorized ILD Teleservices on you AT&T bill lately?

This has been going on for years. I got hit with an unauthorized charge of $7.20 by ILD Teleservices. It seems I misdialed an 800 number but got a recording advising me to dial (101)5158000. I complied and that's where I got hit with the $7.20 charge. I called ILD Teleservices and was told I would receive some sort of credit in the mail--in 60 to 90 days! Better tie a string on my finger if I want to keep tabs on that promise.

Answer 1

10-15-158 is a carrier access code (a.k.a. a dialaround).  No matter who your phone carrier is (AT&T, Bell South, etc.) they're going to route your call to whoever you dialed.  When you dial a carrier access code, this tells the phone company that you want for that call only to use a different long distance company than the one that's on your plan.  Any number that starts with 101 is a carrier access code and you should be aware that dialing any number after that opens you up to whatever charges the company you dial levies against you.  If you called an 800 number accidentally and it told you to dial a 900 number, you'd get charged when dialing the 900 number obviously.  If it told you to call 011-91xxxxxxxxxx then you'd get charged for a call to India because that's what you just dialed.  You should treat any 101 numbers the same way.  Unless you know what you're dialing, you should avoid dialing anything starting with 101.  If you want to know who the carrier access code belongs to, dial 101xxxx17005554141 and that will give you a recording telling you the name of the company.  If you just dial 101xxxx0 that should connect you to the operator for that company.  101xxxx00 is typically used for a company's long distance directory assistance of which a charge is usually associated with it.  They don't have to tell you what the charge is upfront unless you ask!  All I can say is try and be more careful of what you dial.  Some scams tell you to dial a 1-809 number somewhere in the Caribbean where some corrupt phone company there will charge you $10/minute since they can disguise premium rate (900) numbers as local numbers.  You can try calling the phone company to see if they'll block the usage of carrier access codes on your line but I think you'll know better after this experience ;-)